A/N: Just a series of shorts I've had bouncing around in my head. No specific characters/pairings, just random insights on daily lives/occurrences. Fleshing out some of the background characters.
No ninja would willingly admit to believe in it. Luck, they would laugh, whoneedsit?Ninjadon'tneedluck – everythingisbasedonskills,onpractice,oncountlessrepetition. The Academy senseis would echo this, insisting that, when everything came right down to it, every variable must be accounted for.
They knew they were lying. They knew that there were moments that a slight misstep by their opponent, their delaying just a moment, that lucky act might have been the only thing to have saved them. They wouldn't admit to it's existence aloud, but they all knew things would be drastically different without it.
Kakashi believes in it. Luck had made him thing to put on his arm guards that one day. It had been raining heavily, and he had scooped Pakkun up into his arms to keep him from wallowing in the deep mud. Luck had seen to it that the Kuso-nin's shuriken had reflected off the arm guard, and not embedded itself into his pug.
Iruka believes in it, especially after the day one of his students had grabbed his father's poisoned senbon set and bought it to school for target practice. Luck (and the slight weight difference) had sent the tainted ones into the ground instead of into a crowd of students.
Hana believes in it, after one long courier run out to Suna. Luck had sent the broken tree limb falling just ahead of one of her dogs – right before he was about to step onto a beartrap.
Kurenai believes in it, and whispers those beliefs to her swelling belly. I was lucky to have known your father and to have had him for the time that I did, she'd confide, late at night, in the lonely solitude of her bed.
Shikamaru believes in it, too. He bows formally as he arrives at Kurenai's door, ready to escort her wherever she needs to go. He was lucky to have known Asuma as well, lucky that his sensei had seen him make jounin. He hoped his luck would continue to hold, so that he could see the soon-to-be-born child make his father proud.